Online Nursing Degrees at Northern Illinois University

Nurses with a B.S. degree are positioned for greater career opportunities, growth and longevity. In 2017, 86 percent of employers stated a preference for nurses with a bachelor’s degree, and nearly 50 percent of positions required it.³

Our RN to B.S. in Nursing program is designed for licensed RNs seeking their bachelor’s degree. In just 11 courses and as few as 12 months, you can learn advanced nursing skills, critical thinking and even better patient care when you earn this valuable credential.

Program Highlights:

• Credits Required: 28 credit hours.
• Cost Per Credit Hour: $348 per credit hour.
• Time to Completion: Full-time students can complete their degree in as few as 12 months. The maximum time to completion is five years.
• Program Modality: All courses are taught 100 percent online.
• Accreditation: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
• Practicum Requirement: Practicums are leadership or population-focused, and provide experience with specific groups to enhance your previous RN work experience. Your practicum experience can be completed in your local area including your place of employment. We also assist you with practicum placements.

By graduation, you can:

• Set the example for nursing leadership, safety and quality based on proven national standards.
• Integrate evidence-based nursing to practice.
• Practice process improvement methodologies in all health care settings.
• Provide population-focused health care.

You’ll complete our program with a practicum at a location near you, so you can put your new knowledge and skills into practice and prove your nursing excellence.

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Prepare for a career as a Nurse Educator. Promote health and well-being by integrating legal and regulatory policies as well as related sciences and humanities, develop your leadership skills and learn to improve health care through NIU’s MS in Nursing, Nurse Education Specialization.

Nursing Education Specialization

Develop the skills to teach associate or bachelor programs, or educate nurses within a health care system or hospital setting.

Nurse educators are in high demand. Between 2016 and 2017, U.S. nursing schools turned away 64,067 qualified applicants, due in part to a lack of faculty to teach them.⁵ The average salary for an assistant professor in schools of nursing is $77,022.⁵

Program Highlights:

• Credits Required: 41 credit hours.
• Cost Per Credit Hour: $672 per credit hour.
• Time to Completion: Two years.
• Program Modality: All courses are taught 100 percent online.
• Accreditation: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

By graduation, you can:

• Promote health and well-being by integrating legal and regulatory policies as well as related sciences and humanities.
• Improve health care environments with organizational leadership skills.
• Use quality initiatives to improve safety in health care environments.
• Integrate evidence-based scholarship into advanced nursing practice.
• Analyze technology to promote quality health care processes and outcomes.
• Collaborate within inter-professional teams as a nurse leader.
• Implement effective clinical prevention and health promotion in population-based, culturally diverse settings.

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Our D.N.P. degree is for nurses who want to become an expert in a specialized area of advanced nursing practice. Through our online D.N.P. program, you will be prepared as a leader in innovative, evidence-based practice — someone who can formulate and implement patient-care plans based on credible research.

With a D.N.P., you can take on roles in health care leadership, administration and research; teach nursing students across all levels and earn roughly $9,000 more annually than those in similar positions who hold a master’s degree.⁵ The D.N.P. degree prepares you for nursing’s highest-paying roles.

Program Highlights:

• Credits Required: 35 credit hours.
• Cost Per Credit Hour: $732 per credit hour.
• Time to Completion: Full-time students can complete their degree in as few as two years.The maximum time to completion is 10 years.
• Program Modality: All courses are taught 100 percent online.
• Accreditation: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

By graduation, you can:

• Integrate nursing science with ethical, biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, organizational and informational sciences to create advanced nursing practices and new approaches to care delivery.
• Formulate health care system practice initiatives that improve health outcomes and ensure patient safety by formulating initiatives that integrate systems analysis, collaboration and leadership.
• Create best practices based on appraisal, translation and evaluation of evidence.
• Improve patient outcomes and safety by appraising health care information systems and patient care technology.
• Design ethical and culturally sensitive health care policies for diverse populations through advocacy, engagement and collaboration.
• Integrate consultative, collaborative and leadership skills as a member of intra- and inter-professional teams to improve health outcomes.
• Maximize clinical prevention and population health practices to improve the health outcomes of individuals, groups and populations.
• Improve client health outcomes by integrating advanced-level knowledge and clinical judgment, systems, thinking and accountability.

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